Businessman Dinu Patriciu has entered the race to acquire the Anglo-Romanian bank, which is completely held by BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank) and was put up for sale by Austrian-based Erste Bank at the beginning of the year, according to sources on the financial market.
The Anglo-Romanian Bank is a legal entity registered in the UK, with subsidiaries in Frankfurt and Bucharest, where the majority of operations are conducted.
Erste Bank, which controls the BCR, officially announced that it began its preparations to sell the Anglo-Romanian Bank in January 2008.
According to the cited sources, several investors have shown an interest in taking over the bank, but Patriciu is in a good position because the buyer needs to secure the approval for the transaction from the authorities in charge of supervising the London financial market in order to keep the operating licence.
Patriciu could make the acquisition through the investment fund he set up with the money secured from the sale of a 75% stake in Rompetrol.
The over one billion-euro fund is registered in the Netherlands, while the other investors are not from Western Europe, but from Russia, Ukraine and Arab countries. Other banking sources say that the banks interested in taking over the Anglo-Romanian Bank have abandoned the race, but that, at present, negotiations are taking place with three investment funds. However, it remains to be seen if any will be able to take over the bank.
The result of these talks is expected to influence negotiations with Patriciu, who has recently emerged as a potential buyer. Erste Bank representatives have not provided details on how the negotiations for the bank's sale have progressed, or on a timeframe.
In turn, Patriciu could not be contacted to comment by the time this issue was ready for print. In February, Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Bank, told ZF that several investors had voiced their interest to buy the Anglo-Romanian Bank. The Austrians hired investment bank Rothschild & Sons to handle the sale of the Anglo-Romanian Bank as project leader, with the sales process being prolonged in order to see which of the prospective investors can secure the necessary approval to enter the London financial market. All subsidiaries are included in the sale, because Erste Bank believes that operations in London, Frankfurt and Bucharest are more valuable together, rather than separately.
The Austrians have also worked with Rothschild on the BCR's privatisation and on the sale of the stake it held in Asiban. The Anglo-Romanian Bank has assets worth over half a billion euros, a share capital of over 100 million euros and posted a net profit worth almost 10 million euros in 2007, which could bring the value of the transaction to around 100 million euros, but this also depends on market conditions.
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